Winter

Let It Snow! Snowflake Manicure - Take 2

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world!  How are you today?  I'm happy because Christmas is over and I no longer have to do Christmas manicures.  Not like I hate them, but I do get tired of constantly using the same color scheme for so long.  Red, green, red, green....it gets boring!

Today I'm sharing a cute snowflake manicure.  I did this a little bit before Christmas because I needed a personal break from the red and green, and what better break than using Zoya Dream?  Last year, I did these snowflakes using a Sinful Color metallic polish as a base.  I'm really liking this years version better!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Dream
  • Orly Instant Artist - Crisp White
Don't they look so much better this year?  I really love how much neater my snowflakes are!  Last year, I used a nail art brush with a regular white polish.  This year, I decided to use one of my water based Orly Instant Artist polishes.  I'm so happy I decided to do this, because my lines were so much cleaner.  Instead of using the striper brush that comes with the bottle, I dripped some out on a plate, and used my nail art brush.  The best part about using the Instant Artist polish was that if I made any mistakes, I just had to wash it off and my base coat wasn't destroyed!



Isn't Zoya Dream gorgeous?  Literally, it's a dream.  The polish applied evenly in two coats.  As you may or may not see, it has very fine holo glitter flecks throughout it's blue jelly base.  I consider it a jelly because to me it was kind of squishy.  Dream is just so gorgeous, I'm beyond happy that I own two of her sisters Aurora and Storm.  I might need to do a manicure using all of them together.  Hmmmm.

What do you think?  Like this years or last years version better?  Are you as in love with Dream as I am?

This year I'm not going to bring you a New Years Eve manicure.  I'm rather uninspired and never satisfied with what I do for the big day, so I figured I would save myself the stress and paint my nails how I want.  Maybe next year!

Tomorrow I'm going to try to get a "Best of 2013" post up.  If not, it should be here on New Years Day!  I'm really excited to look back on the year!!!

Until next time, <3.

**Zoya Dream was provided by Zoya for Promotional Purposes.  The opinions express in this post are my own**

Swatches

My Christmas Manicure - Zoya Seraphina and Sinful Colors Holiday Rebel

9:00:00 AM

Well hello polished world!  Hope you all had a very blessed Christmas!!!  Today I am bringing you the manicure that I wore Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!

I woke up the morning of Christmas Eve and realized that I had not used my bottle of Holiday Rebel by Sinful Colors yet.  I was kind of upset because when I purchased it, I had so many ideas as to how I could integrate this new red, green, and silver holo glitter polish with some really neat Christmas nail art designs.  Since I ended up getting sick, then later purchased nail art wheels, this polish slipped my mind and was lost in my Melmer.

I'm so happy though that I remembered it because I was able to create a simple, yet festive manicure that I completely enjoyed!  For the life of me, I cannot figure out why I don't do more manicures like this.

Let's take a look!




Colors Used
  • Zoya - Seraphina
  • Sinful Colors - Holiday Rebel
  • INM - Northern Lights
To get the look, I started off with a base coat of Sinful Colors Seraphina.  I used this polish once before in a simple manicure back when I received the Zenith Collection.  I liked the polish then, but I'm loving it more now.  It's more gorgeous than I remember.  It's really neat because it's a metallic polish that doesn't dry with that awful streaky foil finish like some metallic polishes do.  It's softer, and still gives you that pop of effect like you're used to with normal metallics.

I really wanted these nails to sparkle, so I added a thin coat of INM Northern Lights before the Sinful Colors polish.  This made the nails have a little extra dimension and shine.

Then I added Holiday Rebel, the gorgeous perfect Christmas glitter!  I have searched everywhere for a polish like this and am so happy to own it!  It has multi sized red and green glitters with larger silver holo pieces.  What I loved about this polish is the even coverage of the glitter.  I literally only went over my nail once with a decent amount of polish on the brush.  I didn't have to place any glitters either, they just all fell perfectly into place.



Look how pretty!  I wish I could capture how sparkly they really are.  You can kind of see on the pointer finger in the picture above how the silver piece catches the light and gives you the holo effect.  I remember when I purchased the bottle wishing that there were more of these silver pieces, but after applying the polish, I believe it had the perfect amount.

What do you think?  Suitable Christmas Eve and Day Manicure?

 Now I am off to think of some New Years Eve nails!  I'm thinking more glitter?  Hmmmm.

Until next time, <3.

**I purchased Sinful Colors Holiday Rebel.  Zoya provided Seraphina for Promotional Purposes.  Please see my disclosure policy**

Christmas

Christmas Nail Art Wheel!

9:00:00 AM

Merry Christmas to all of my followers who celebrate!!!  Hope you all are having or have had a great holiday!!!

I am so excited to show you my Christmas Nail Art Wheel that I have been working on for the past couple of weeks!  As I mentioned earlier this month, I finally took the plunge and purchased a set of 10 wheels from Sally Beauty.  I cannot begin to tell you how much fun I have had creating this wheel and how I cannot wait to use my other 9!!

Let's take a look at my wheel!  I apologize for the weird coloring.  Need to figure out how to photograph these things!  Any tips?


From holly, to figgy pudding, I think I covered all the different Christmas themes.  There are wayyyy too many colors to list what I did end up using.  As you can see, I did re-do some of the nails that I already have posted.  They were just so cute that I wanted to re-create them on a larger canvas to forever have!

While I love all of the designs, I am going to highlight two of them as being my favorite that I wish I had time to do on my nails for the actual holiday.

The first is the Christmas Sweater nail!


For this nail, I used Zoya in Livingston as a base, then Sinful Colors in Snow Me White for the white.  After I did two coats of Livingston, I taped four pieces of nail art tape across the nail.  With my nail art brush, in between each segment of tape, I created little pointed arches, then filled in the white from the arch down.  When I had this random star shape, I slowly removed the tape.  With a medium sized dotting tool, I added dots to the top and bottom of the nail, then to the middle of the design.  I don't think that I could have gotten this look on my little canvas, so I'm really happy I was able to do it on my nail art wheel since it is a design I always wanted to try.  Maybe I will have to grow my nails out to accomplish them on my own canvases next year!

The next nail I want to highlight is the snowy Christmas tree!


To get this look, I started off with a base coat of Sinful Colors - Snow Me White.  When that was dried, I created a gradient using Ulta - Blue Streak, Sally Hansen - Blue Away!, and Sinful Colors - Snow Me White.  I dabbed it on the nail wheel a couple of times and admired the pretty blue gradient.  I added a top coat of INM Northern Lights to make it look like a sparkly sky!  When it was dried, I added some white polish to the tip of the wheel to make it look like a snow scene.  With Zoya - Hunter and my nail art brush, I added the trees, a small one in the background, and a larger one in the foreground.  As Hunter was drying, I used a small dotting tool and added some snow flakes and the little stars on the top of the trees.  Then I went back through ad added the snow on the trees.  Now that I'm looking at this design, I'm kind of wishing I added some red dots to the trees to make them look like they had little lights or Christmas bulbs on them.  Hmmm, maybe I will re-do this design without the stars when it's really snowy!

What do you think of my first nail art wheel?  Do you have a favorite?

 Tomorrow or the next day, I'll share with you my very simple manicure I did for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.  I was rather upset that I hadn't used one of my Christmas glitters, so I took off my Santa's and painted something so pretty that I'm really loving!

I hope you all have a very blessed Christmas and enjoy your day!  Talk to you soon!

Until next time, <3.

Christmas

Santa Claus Nail Art - Take 2

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world!  Can you believe Christmas Eve is tomorrow?!  This whole month has flown by.  Now I have to start thinking about New Years manicures.  Honestly though, I cannot wait to be done painting my nails surrounding a "theme."  Don't get me wrong, I love doing holiday manicures, but after awhile, I get kind of bored and start itching to do other manicures.

Since tomorrow is Christmas Eve, today I'm bringing Santa Claus nails!!!  I painted these little guys last year and really loved the end result!  This year, I'm loving them just the same!  It's really weird though, in the middle of the summer, these nails were my number 1 traffic source from Google in Russia.  Literally, people were searching "santa nails" in July.  Maybe it was  Christmas in July?  Who knows.

Anywho, let's take a look at the nails!




Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Chantal
  • OPI - The Spy Who Loved Me
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
  • Sally Hansen - Pink Blink
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
Cute, right?  To get the look, I started off with a base coat of Zoya Chantal from the new 2014 Natural Collection.  Last, I kept my nails naked underneath, and the red ended up staining my nails, so I put on the base of a nude polish to hopefully avoid that.  We shall see when I take them off.

After my base was dried, I used my nail art brush to paint the red hats by my cuticle using OPI The Spy Who Loved Me.  I then sat for a good 10 minutes before doing anything else because I wanted to make sure that the red was dry before the next part.  The next part was adding the white detailing to the edge of the hat.  I have found that if the red isn't 100% dry, then it will bleed into the white making nice pink dots instead of white ones.  Using my medium dotting tool, I added the white dots on the hat.

With a smaller dotting tool, I went down the side of each nail then went across the bottom part of my nail for the top of the beard.  I then filled in the tips of my nails using the same dotting tool.  As the beards were drying, I went through and added the whites of the eyes.  I then added the pink noses, the black pupils, and the little smirks.



This was my first time using Zoya Chantal, and it is such an amazing polish.  It matched my skin tone rather well and was perfect for the faces of these little guys.  It applied evenly in two coats and had a rather nice formula.  Just like my old bottle of Avery from Zoya, it was kind of freaky (for me) to have plain nude nails.  It matched my skin so well that it almost looked like I had no nails at all when it was the plain base.  Well, there was some distinction, but still, it was weird.  It's a great nude polish though.  No complaints!

What do you think?  Liking the little guys??

On Christmas I'll be sharing with you my nail art wheel!  I really hope you enjoy it!  I'm proud of the end result.  Some nails on it I may do after Christmas because they were "winter-y" instead of Christmas-y but whatever.  We shall talk about it then!

Until next time, <3.

**Zoya Chantal was provided by Zoya for Promotional Purposes.  Opinions expressed in this post are my own.  Please see my disclosure policy**

Animal Mani

Rudolph Nail Art! + Tutorial!

9:00:00 AM

Hi Polished World!  Can you believe that Christmas is less than a week away?  Time just flew by this year!  I've been enjoying my Christmas manicures so much that I'm keeping them on longer than I intended.  Therefore, I don't know how many more I'll be able to fit in before Christmas.  There is some good news though, I have created a Christmas Nail Art Wheel with allll designs I wanted to do which I will hopefully be sharing soon!

For today though I re-created a Rudolph manicure I did last year which was inspired by a manicure by Top Coat It.  I'm so happy I decided to re-do it because I truly am in love with these little guys!  They're so cute!

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Louise and Taylor
  • OPI - The Spy Who Loved Me
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
Tutorial Time!  I just had to create one because this is such a simple and festive manicure for the holiday!



  1. Paint your nail with your favorite brown polish.  For this manicure, I used Zoya Louise.
  2. With a large dotting tool and your favorite red polish (I used OPI The Spy Who Loves Me), dot the red nose at the tip of your nail.  I did a series of dots to make one larger circle.
  3. With a medium sized (or even the large) dotting tool, slightly above the nose, take a white polish and create two white dots for the eyes.
  4. While the nose and eyes are drying, with a nail art brush and tan polish (I used Zoya Taylor), draw the antlers slightly above the eyes.  I did this by drawing a straight line and two lines coming out from the side.
  5. With a smaller dotting tool and black polish, add black dots to the eyes.  You can have them looking down like mine, or you can have them looking in different directions.
  6. With a nail art brush, take your white polish and add a little curved line to the nose to show it's shine!


Don't these nails make you want to sing the Rudolph song?  I really am liking them more than last years, and I think it is because of the color choices.  Zoya Louise is from the Fall Cashmere collection.  Honestly, when I received this polish, I hated it.  I'm not a fan of brown, and I really saw no use for it other than maybe creating tree branches or tree stumps.  After painting it on my nails for the base of this manicure, I fell in love.  It applied so smoothly and had complete coverage in two coats.  It didn't look disgusting as I thought it would, it was rather pretty.

I'm happy I just received Taylor from the new Naturel collection coming soon from Zoya!  I don't have a huge collection of nude polishes, so all six are a welcome edition to my collection.  Taylor, to me, closely resembles my favorite nude polish, Avery, which is also by Zoya.  I have been using my bottle of Avery very sparingly because it's getting low, so I was happy to see that Taylor was similar.  Taylor might lean slightly more towards the pink side, but it was kind of hard to see.  Regardless, it worked perfectly for the antlers and is a great nail art polish!

I loved my choice of OPI - The Spy Who Loved Me for the red noses.  I purchased this polish in the summer for my mom since she loves red pedicures.  Since this had a subtle gold shimmer, I knew she would like it even more.  Sadly, when on the toes, you couldn't see the shimmer as much, but when it's on the nail, you can most certainly see the sparkle.  Perfect Christmas Red!

What do you think?  Going to try the little guys on your own nails??

Can't wait to show you my Christmas Nail wheel and final Christmas manicure!  Then it's on to New Years and winter manicures!

Until next time, <3.

**Zoya Louise and Taylor were provided by Zoya for Promotional Purposes.  Opinions express are my own.  Please see my disclosure policy**

Nail Artist of the Month

December Nail Artist of the Month - Perfectly_Polish

9:00:00 AM

Hello polished world!  How are you today?  I'm doing well, and am happy to finally be bringing you today's post!  I'm taking a break from my Christmas manicures (kind of much needed since I'm painting and posting in a very short period of time and it's getting hectic) and bringing you the December Nail Artist of the Month!  Usually I introduce you to a Nail Artist of the Month at the beginning of the month, but not only was I sick, but so was the selected artist.  Since I really wanted to feature her, I decided to push it off until we both were better.

Today that day has come and I couldn't be happier to introduce you to Janet from Perfectly_Polish on Instagram!  Some of you may know her by her previous Instagram name @Janet_M1.  I actually selected Janet to be my December Nail Artist of the Month back in October after seeing her Legend of Zelda manicures.  Seriously, this girl has some talent.

Enough of my babbling, let's hand the blog over to Janet!
_____________________________________

 I'm so excited to be doing this post! I just want to start off by thanking Alaina for this opportunity. When I first read Alaina's email I was so surprised that she had picked me to be her nail artist of the month. I honestly couldn't believe it! So Thank You once more Alaina for choosing me it is truly a great honor to be your nail artist of the month!:D

Hello everyone! :)  My name is Janet I am 19 and from Madera, California. My hobbies include nail art, baking, drawing and other crafts. Ive always had a great appreciation for art. I truly believe that their is an art in just about everything. I would always look at magazines and would wonder who all these wonderful people were and how they were able to turn something like nails into a work of art. I started getting serious about nail art after discovering instagram nail artists. I got inspired by the wonderful nail art community to switch my paper and pencil for nail polish and stripers. I'm so thankful for all the wonderful people on instagram that helped me grow and taught me things that otherwise would've taken me years.

For today I decided to paint Haley Williams on my nails. I used this amazing drawing that was created by Sophie from paintparamore on Tumblr. Ive seen it floating around the internet a couple of times and I finally decided to find the artist. I love Paramore so much but for today its just Hayley Williams. :)

Her amazing artwork. <3

This is how my nails turned out. Sorry for the glare there was seriously no sunlight so I have no clue were all the glare came from.


Click to see more photos!!

Christmas

A Festive Christmas Manicure

9:00:00 AM

Hello polished world!  How are you today?  Is everyone getting ready for Christmas?  I can't believe it's less than two weeks away!!  I think because Thanksgiving was so late this year, it's really throwing me off.  At least I'm healthy now so I'm able to paint my nails as festively as possible.

Today's manicure is no exception.  I think that this manicure is by far my most festive manicure ever!!  I debated on posting it now or waiting until closer to Christmas, but I thought if I shared it now, people would become inspired for the holiday!  I got the idea from this pin on Pinterest which sadly leads to a link which gives no credit to the original artist.  If you're the one who painted those nails, please let me know!  Looks like it was stolen off of Instagram because it has a weird filter on it.

Anyways, after seeing this adorable Christmas character manicure, I knew I had to try it.  It has been awhile since I have done an extensive manicure such as this, and I forgot how much I love doing it.  Seriously, it took close to two hours to do both hands, but it was totally worth it!

Let's take a look.  Sorry again about my photos.  I'm going to buy another light this week to hopefully fix them.




This is kind of a long post.  If you want to see the colors used and how I painted the cuties on my nails, please read on!

Christmas

Christmas Light Nail Art

9:00:00 AM


Hey polished peeps!  Hope you are all having a good Wednesday!  I'm pretty happy because I'm feeling better and it snowed a little last night.  It is that pretty fluffy snow that lands on the top of the bushes so the Christmas lights just start to peak out.  I love when that happens.

I also love that my nails are currently matching all my outdoor decorations thanks to the snow!  Today I am bringing you these cute Christmas Light nails!  Last year I did this manicure and really enjoyed the look.  As it says in that post, I got the idea from a couple of different manicures.

Of course, both years I couldn't get decent photos, but this years aren't as awful.  Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Base
    • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
    • Sally Hansen - Disco Ball
    • INM - Northern Lights
  • Lights
    • Zoya - Josie
    • Zoya - Livingston
    • Zoya - Darcy
    • Ulta - Blue Streak
    • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
Cute, right?  Too lazy to create a tutorial for this manicure, but of course I will share with you how I got the look!  I first started with a clear base coat.  I took a make up sponge and painted some white polish on it and dabbed the tips of my nails.  I wanted to give the look of a snow accumulation on my nails.  To make it look more "snow" like, I added a coat of Disco Ball and INM Northern Lights.  This made my nails sparkle like the fluffy fresh snow does on a sunny winter day.

When that was dried, with my nail art brush, I drew the line using Orly Liquid Vinyl.  I next made sure that the black was completely dried because I didn't want to get any black polish mixed onto the colored bulbs.  I used my smallest nail art brush and created all the bulbs.  After they were dried, I wasn't 100% happy with them, so I took a toothpick and added the white little glowing lines.



Alternatively, you could do this manicure on a completely white nail, but I still would suggest adding some form of glitter!  I think it really makes the manicure pop.  Same with the little lines on the light bulbs.  I am so happy I decided to add those because it looks more realistic to me.  Well, as realistic as nail art can be.

What do you think?  Liking the Christmas lights on the snow base?

I'm off to paint another Christmas manicure!!!  Hope you have a great day! Until next time, <3.

Animal Mani

Penguin Nail Art

9:00:00 AM

Good morning polished world!  How are you doing?  I'm feeling much better compared to the beginning of this week!  I do not want to get sick like that again, especially since Christmas is right around the corner!  

I have many Christmas manicures planned!  I originally was going to bring you a Christmas manicure today, but I got kind of lazy and didn't feel like starting with my red and greens so early.  Plus while I am better, I'm still not feeling 100% myself, so I didn't want to be super creative.

So, instead of a Christmas manicure, I'm bringing you these cute winter penguins!!!  They are perfect for this time of the year, and if you want to make them Christmas-y, you could totally add a red and green bowtie on the accent nails :).

Let's take a look!




Colors Used:
  • Jessica - Shiny Black
  • Sinful Colors - Snow Me White
  • Maybelline - Sweet Clementine
I'm not sure if I have used my Jessica Black yet for a base for nail art.  I might have but my mind is blanking right now.  Regardless, I really enjoyed this polish as much as my Orly Liquid Vinyl.  It applied perfectly in one coat, but I used two to make sure that I had no bald spots.  It dried fast too which was nice because I didn't end up dragging any black into the white polish.  Sadly, it did drag a bit when I added top coat, but I think you'll get that with any black polish.

Since these little guys are perfect for winter, I decided to create a tutorial so you too could have these cute little guys on your nails!

How I got the Look:


  1. Paint your nail with your favorite black polish
  2. With your favorite white polish, add the white belly using the polishes brush.  You could also use a nail art brush if you prefer.  I just painted 3/4 of the nail as if I were painting it like my regular nail.
  3. With my larger dotting tool, add two white dots for the eyes.
  4. As the eyes and belly are drying, with a nail art brush, add the beak with your favorite orange polish.  With a small dotting tool, create two little hearts at the bottom of the nail for the webbed feet.
  5. With your small dotting tool, add a black dot, then a white dot, and another black dot for the eyes.  You can just leave it as one black dot if you prefer.

For my first time painting in more than a week, I think I did pretty dang well!  Honestly, I was kind of nervous to paint my nails again.  I kid you not, I had naked nails for a week and took an 11 day break between painting.  I had this fear that I had forgotten how to paint my nails or use my dotting tools.  Silly right, but good thing painting your nails is like riding a bike.

What do you think?  Liking the penguins?  Have you ever done them?

 Please let me know if you have any Christmas manicure ideas for me!!!  Also, if you would like to see a tutorial for anything, let me know as well!!

As always, if you do re-create this manicure, please share with me on my social networks!!!

Until next time, <3.

kitchen sink mani

Inspired by Young, Wild, and Polished

9:00:00 AM

Hey everyone!  Hope you are doing well today!  I'm feeling a bit better, which is always a good thing.  I have yet to paint my nails though in over a week so hopefully tonight I'll get the urge to do something fun with them.

Today I'm bringing you a manicure I did back in September but never got around to sharing.  It was inspired by this manicure by Young, Wild and Polished.  I'm surprised more of my manicures are not inspired by Nicole since there are many nights I look at her Instagram for inspiration.

The grass is super bright in the background....not sure why, but the nails are true to color!  Let's take a look.




Colors Used:
  • Orly - Frolic
  • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
  • OPI - My Boyfriend Scales Walls
Cute right?  Only difference between my manicure and Nicole's is that she used purple where I used the pinkish color.  At the time that I did this manicure, I had just purchased a bottle of Orly Frolic and was dying to use it.  I'm so happy to have this polish in my collection because it really is gorgeous and has a perfect application.

I realized when I was done that I had taped the wrong nail.  I should have done the middle finger and had my thumb matching my ring finger but I had a mini brain fart.  In the end, I don't think that it made a huge difference or made the manicure look awful.

What do you think?  Liking this kitchen sink manicure?

Wow, short post.....I think this might be the shortest yet!

Until next time, <3.

Press Release

Zoya Naturel Collection 2014 - Press Release

4:16:00 PM

Hi polished world!  I'm very excited to bring you this Press Release from Zoya introducing their new Naturel Collection!  This collection will consist of 6 neutral nudes with pink undertones.  Typically, I wouldn't be excited for a "nude" collection, but if you keep reading, you'll see why I'm really excited!

Let's take a look!
                                                      ________________________________

Zoya Nail Polish Naturel CollectionSometimes less can be so much more...


The natural nail only better... The Zoya Nail Polish Naturel collection masters delicate tone on tone color with six new, full-coverage (opaque) neutral nudes with a pink undertone, that can be worn beautifully alone or stunningly together to create modern tonal accents.

The Look: It’s not about matching - it’s about coordinating colors with slight tonal differences to create interest.



Zoya Naturel Collection
• ZP704 - Chantal: French Vanilla Cream, Full Coverage Formula.
• ZP705 - Taylor: Light Toffee Cream, Full Coverage Formula.
• ZP706 - Rue: Boudoir Blush Cream, Full Coverage Formula.
• ZP707 - Brigitte: Bombshell Mauve Cream, Full Coverage Formula.
• ZP708 - Odette: Sultry Maroon Cream, Full Coverage Formula.
• ZP709 - Normani: Sable Mauve Cream, Full Coverage Formula.



Zoya’s Crusade against Artificial Nail Products:
Since 1993, Zoya Nail Polish and Treatments has provided quality, long-wearing formulations that are free of potentially toxic ingredients. Here’s how the battle against artificial and toxic products was won…

As owner of the country’s first Natural Nail and Skin Spa and armed with relevant information on potential health hazards, Zoya Reyzis was resolute to create a new line of quality professional products that would meet her exacting specifications. Pregnant at the time, she enlisted the aid of her Chemist Husband, Michael Reyzis, to develop toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate free formulations that would provide extended wear on natural nails making Zoya the first to develop a “Big 3 Free” formula of nail polish. In the years since the birth of the brand, the commitment to providing safe and effective products has soldiered on with Zoya once again leading the way with the removal of formaldehyde resins and camphor to create the first “Big 5 Free” nail polish brand.

Find the Zoya Naturel Nail Polish Collection and over 300 stunning BIG5FREE* Zoya colors onwww.zoya.com. Each and every color has a name as unique as the women who inspired it.

*Formula is completely free of formaldehyde, formaldehyde resin, dibutyl phthalate, toluene and camphor.

COMING SOON…
The Zoya Naturel Nail Polish Collection available online at Zoya.com January 01, 2014.

ZOYA IS THE NATUREL COLOR OF FASHION!
$9.00 ea. (US)
Available on Zoya.com

_____________________________

See how pretty they are?  I cannot wait to get my hands on them and try the manicures that they have in the swatches above!  

precision lacquer

Precision Lacquer - Shake Your Bon Bon with Zoya Sailor

9:00:00 AM

Hi everyone!  Sorry for being MIA the past few days, but as you may or may not know I have been rather sick.  It all started last Tuesday with a little cough, then by Wednesday afternoon I could barely move.  I have spent way too many hours in bed, but it was much needed as I'm slowly starting to feel better.

Typically, the first post of the month goes to a selected Nail Artist of the Month.  I have a certain artist picked out, but she has gotten sick as well, therefore we are delaying that post for a few more days, weeks, whatever.  It's more important to get healthy than to get that post up in my opinion.

I still have a really pretty manicure to bring you today so have no fear!  I did this manicure a few weeks ago with Zoya Sailor and Precision Lacquer Shake Your Bon Bon.  Both colors I have had for a while now but have yet to use.  I'm kind of kicking myself for delaying because both polishes are beautiful.  When you add them together, it's just amazing.

Let's take a look....




Colors Used:
  • Zoya - Sailor
  • Precision Lacquer - Shake Your Bon Bon
This tape manicure was inspired by this manicure by @_nailsbymeg on Instagram.  I loved the glitter with the cream and the unique tape design that I knew I had to re-create it.  Originally, I was going to re-create this manicure with Zoya Hunter and Precision Lacquer 18 Carat Cake, but I decided to switch the colors up.  Plus, green and gold, not really my thing.  I'm sure I would have loved it, but I definitely gravitate more towards blue.

The taping was kind of a pain in the rear, but totally worth it in the end.  I had to use 10 different pieces of tape in total.  If I had to do this on all my nails, I would have gone insane.  It takes a steady hand and a bit of patience to get the outer triangles to line up with the main criss-cross through the nail.



Zoya Sailor is the perfect navy polish which I am just in love with.  It had an amazing formula which was almost a one coater.  I did two coats just to even out a few bald spots.  The only thing that was weird for me with this polish was that my pointer finger dried shiny, and my pinkie matte.  It made no sense to me, but I knew I wanted a shiny manicure so I just added OTD and it fixed it.

Shake Your Bon Bon by Precision Lacquer is a microglitter I really think everyone should have.  It is part of their Sprinkles Collection alongside 18 Carat Cake and Hazel & Gretal.  For my middle finger, I used three coats to get complete coverage.  If I did two thicker applications, I could have gotten away with two, but I was a tad light.  For my taped finger, you can see how awesome the coverage really was as there really are no bald spots.  Plus, you can kind of tell how sparkly it was.  My camera couldn't focus properly on the whole manicure because of all the sparkle!

What do you think?  Loving the blue manicure?  Did anyone else have the weird matte and shiny drying with Zoya Sailor?

If you want to snag a bottle of Zoya Sailor, it is available as part of the Fall Cashmere collection on Zoya's website for $8.00 per bottle.  This week Zoya is starting their Flash Promos, so who knows maybe you can snag a bottle for free.

Precision Lacquer Shake Your Bon Bon, and the other polishes from the Sprinkle Collection, are available on their website for $3.97 on sale from $5.95.  Not sure how long the sale is going on for since I just noticed it when I was adding the link.

For a sick girl, this post is long winded.  I guess I have missed blogging a lot in my mini absence!!!

Until next time, <3.

Animal Mani

Happy Thanksgiving! Turkey Nails!

9:00:00 AM

Happy Wednesday all!!!  Hope you all are having a great day!  It's snowing here, which kind of makes me happy.

As many of you know, tomorrow is Thanksgiving, so I of course had to have a festive manicure to help celebrate!!  I decided to re-create last year's Turkey Nail Art since it's the most Thanksgiving-y thing I could think to do.  Last year, I tried to follow Adventures in Acetone's tutorial, but failed.  This year I decided to try again, and guess what, I failed again!  After trying three different turkey looks, I found this tutorial by Heather from Peace, Love, and Polish and liked that turkey the best.

I'm not 100% happy with my re-creation, but it's better than having no holiday nails.  I'm also not 100% happy with my photos.  My light box would NOT participate with me, so I opted for the white background which turned into a dingy gray with the lighting.  Maybe on Black Friday I'll go out and purchase another desk lamp.




Colors Used:
  • Gold Nails
    • Sally Hansen - Golden-I
    • China Glaze - Glitter Goblin
  • Turkeys
    • Sinful Colors - Nirvana, Snow Me White
    • Zoya - Arizona, Thandie, Darcy
    • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
Okay, they're kind of cute.  You would think that painting a turkey would be rather easy, but honestly it is one of the hardest designs I've done.  I just couldn't get the little guy to look just right or fit perfectly with all the dang feathers.  Maybe if my nails were longer?  I would say I'll try again next year, but honestly, I think I'm forever crossing turkeys off my list of nail art I must do!



To get my turkeys, I followed Heather's tutorial.  I first drew my turkey's body and filled it in with my nail art brush.  When it was dried I took my yellow polish and drew the random feathers around the little guy.  I did the same with the orange, then lastly the red.  I then added the details of the turkey's little face.

What do you think?  Liking these turkeys?  Having just as much difficulty with turkey nail art as I have?

 I hope all my followers who are celebrating Thanksgiving have a very blessed holiday with their families and friends.  I am so thankful for all of you who have supported me and my blogging adventures.  I know that sometimes I stink at responding to blog or Instagram comments, but I read every last one of them and they put the biggest smile on my face.  I never in a million years thought that this little hobby would turn into what The Little Canvas has become, and for that I am thankful.  Despite the frustrations and disasticures, this blog has truly been a blessing!  So again, thank you all for your support and kind words!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!!!!!!  Until next time, <3.

Holiday

PolishPals Thanksgiving Pumpkin Nail Art

9:00:00 AM

Happy Sunday Polished World!!!  How are you all today?  As long as I'm sitting in front of a heater today, I'll be great!  It got really chilly here this weekend and we just got our first little accumulation of snow.  I love the snow, just hate the cold.  If only there was a way to have snow in 75 degree weather.....

Today's nails were not planned at all.  I originally sat down to do a manicure for Catching Fire, but the odds were not in my favor and I had three disasticures.  I decided to abandon the Catching Fire theme and move into a Thanksgiving theme!

I remembered this adorable manicure by PolishPals that I wanted to create back in October, but got delayed with all my Halloween manicures.  I'm happy I delayed in re-creating Jenna's manicure because she created this little tutorial!

I am happy my Catching Fire manicure failed....let's take a look at my cute little pumpkins!




Colors Used:
  • Base
    • Zoya - Avery
  • Pumpkins
    • Maybelline - Sweet Clementine
    • Sinful Colors - Nirvana
    • Zoya - Josie
    • Orly - Liquid Vinyl
Cute, right?  I can't tell you how much I love these little pumpkins!!!  To me, they look like little cartoons.

To get the look, I followed the tutorial I linked above.  First, I started with my base coat of Avery.  Then I took my orange polish and created the pumpkins on my nails.  With my nail art brush, I added the brown stem, then started outlining my pumpkins with my black polish.  When the black was dried, I went through and added the green leaf and outlined that with more black.



After one day, my base shrunk and my little pumpkins were pulling back from the tips of my nails.  I tried to touch them up it didn't go so well.  Since I loved the pumpkins so much though, I decide to re-do them without a base color, and that's currently what I'm wearing.  I'll probably snap a shot of that version with my iPhone sometime this week and share it on Instagram as a comparison.  Personally, I'm liking both versions the same.

What do you think?  Liking the little pumpkins?

Until next time, <3.